Epic Games acquires Sketchfab

Sketchfab has been acquired by Epic Games, one of the largest and most important videogame developers in the world (and creators of Unreal Engine, the most widely used 3D graphics engine). As a videogame journalist industry for many years before additive manufacturing, I had been waiting for this moment to arrive. The potential synergies between video games and 3D printing are just too obvious to ignore. Sketchfab can act as a perfect connecting platform between the virtual and the physical worlds.

“The Sketchfab team has done an incredible job opening up the world of 3D content on the web and enabling anyone to edit and publish content online,” said Marc Petit, VP and General Manager of Unreal Engine. “As the adoption of real-time 3D technology continues to grow, demand for web-based solutions will only increase. We are excited to work together with the Sketchfab team to empower even more creators.

Sketchfab has made it easy to discover, edit, buy, and sell 3D content directly through their web-based service and is now home to 4 million 3D assets. Their technology has integrations across every major 3D creation tool and publishing platform and is compatible across all major browsers and operating systems, on both desktop and mobile. By joining forces, Epic and Sketchfab will be able to make 3D, AR and VR content more accessible and grow the creator ecosystem, which are critical to an open and interconnected Metaverse.

Going forward Epic Games will continue to enable all of the integrations in place with Sketchfab’s technology, as well as ensure the company’s offerings will remain compatible with each of the different tools and platforms they support. This includes wholeheartedly supporting Unity and other engines. Sketchfab will continue to operate as an independently branded service while collaborating closely with the Unreal Engine team.

As part of both companies’ shared goal to make Sketchfab’s offerings more profitable to creators, Sketchfab’s store fees will be reduced to 12% so that 3D creators will get even more value when using Sketchfab.

“We built Sketchfab with a mission to empower a new era of creativity and provide a service for creators to showcase their work online and make 3D content accessible,” said Alban Denoyel, CEO and co-founder of Sketchfab. “Joining Epic will enable us to accelerate the development of Sketchfab and our powerful online toolset, all while providing an even greater experience for creators. We are proud to work alongside Epic to build the Metaverse and enable creators to take their work even further.”